One World One Heart Winner

The Blog Hopping event is over and I must say it was a marathon!  It was well worth it, though.  I've never seen so many absolutely amazing blogs and I never would have found them if it hadn't been for this event.  I'm only sorry that I came upon in its last year, though I can see what a huge undertaking it's been for its founder, Lisa Swifka.  All I can say is THANK YOU FOR THE INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE.

I have a long list of blogs that I have to go back and explore more fully.  At first I took my time and browsed and then I realized that if I wanted to visit them all or even most I wouldn't be able to look at more than a page or two. I saw blogs that were wonderfully designed and blogs that showcased incredible talent; blogs full of witty commentary, helpful tutorials and inspiring creations.  There were even fellow newbie blogs like mine which were just reassuring (which is a good thing).

And now to the big announcement:
Drumroll please ......
The winner of my giveaway is:

Michelle from Que Bella, One World One Heart participant 598 from Kentucky, USA.  I've emailed Michelle and when her mailing particulars arrive, the journal will be winging it's way to her with my best wishes.

Fused Glass

I just spent a wonderful day at ArtifactsPlus, a new art supply store in Petrolia, ON with Marie-Josée Girard, a glass artist from Georgetown, ON. Through ArtifactsPlus, she was offering a Beginner's Workshop in fused glass.  I've dabbled in the past in stained glass at the copper foil level and enjoyed that but I've never gone beyond in my interest in glass work.

I've often been tempted by things I've seen on the Internet but classes and workshops have never come my way until now.  This workshop with Marie was a great introduction. 

She explained that fused glass is made by layering or stacking thin sheets of coloured glass to create patterns or images.  A clear sheet of glass is always used as the base layer.  The completed stack of glass is placed into a kiln to be fused by heating it through a programmed series of increases in temperature (ramps) and (soaks) holding the temperature at certain points until the separate pieces of glass begin to fuse together (between 1400ºF and 1500ºF).

Once fused, the glass is cooled at a programmed rate, quickly through 1500ºF to 1000ºF so it doesn't lose its shine and more slowly through the lower temperatures.  A full cycle in the kiln can take 12 to 24 hours depending on the size and thickness of the piece(s) being fired.

We also learned that all glass is not compatible when it comes to fusing.  The glass we were using was coded system 96.  The other major classification is system 90.  Marie uses system 96 exclusively for all her work and is happy with the wide colour range.  System 96 glass when fused at high temperatures and cooled and soaked (held) at 960ºF begins to form a very strong bond (this is what will provide the strength for the piece).   For system 90 glass, this temperature comes at 1000ºF.  This difference in temperature point is why the two types of glass should not be mixed.

We received that technical information in small pieces throughout the day, complete with visual examples that Marie brought along.

When it came to designing our pieces we learned that it was going to be a two stage process.  We were going to pick out a slump mold that was going to determine the size and shape of our piece.  We would be doing a small ring dish and a larger piece.  Colour choices would be up to us. 

Marie showed us a wide range of samples using clear, white and black backgrounds and the effects that other colours had upon them.  We had a wide choice of opaque and transparent sheet glass (system 96) colours to choose from.  We also had glass stringers, which were the thickness of pencil leads; glass noodles, which were like fettuccine noodles; pebbles, which were like blueberry sized blobs and confetti, which were like very thin flakes of glass.

Our base of clear glass had to be cut to the size of our mold. If it was too large, when it was heated it would melt over the side of the mold and stick to it.  It had to be just the right size to sit on top of the mold so that when heated it would slump into the mold and take its shape.  (I forgot to take a picture of my mold).

We used our stained glass cutters to cut out our shapes and prepare our designs after we sketched them on paper.  Because we are layering glass, we had to be careful that we didn't make the edges of the glass too thick or it would spread.  Glass has a memory and it wants to be about 6mm thick.  We wanted our layers of glass to add up to approximately 6mm.  If it was going to be more than 6mm high, we wanted it to be more towards the middle than near the edge since the molds all had a dip in them.

After cutting, the pieces of glass were all cleaned with Windex and lightly tacked in place with a gel glue (just so the pieces won't slide while moving them to the kiln).  They are then fired to fuse all the layers into one piece.

The glass is then removed from the kiln and placed on the mold and fired again to get its shape.  The firing schedule is different because the glass no longer needs to be fused, it just needs to be shaped.

Here is my small project.   It's 3" x 3".  It's going to be a ring dish when it's been fired in its slump mold.  It's in the kiln for its first firing to be fused.

The small black lines are the stringers.

This is 8" x 8" and will be a raised plate shape when it is finished.  I'll post pictures when they are completed.

Here is the small kiln (more jewellery sized)

Here is the large kiln with the class projects in it.

ATC

ATCs or Artist Trading Cards have been a popular art medium for a number of years now.  I've dabbled with various techniques over the years and participated in numerous swaps.  In fact, I would have to say it was my interest in ATCs that got me started with online swapping and online classes.  They were really the beginning of my fascination with the wonderful world of art on the internet.

Before I heard about ATCs from a member of a support group I was attending, all my art instruction was trial and error or through the occasional PBS broadcast or book from the library.  When I heard about ATCs and at the same time, visual journals, I was intrigued. 

The library didn't have any books on the subject so this led me to the internet to research the topic.  And the rest, as they say, was history.  From that moment on I was deep in a world of techniques, challenges and swaps with fellow enthusiasts from around the world.  Aside from specific limitations of a challenge the only rules of ATCs were the dimensions 2.5" x 3.5" or the dimensions of a typical trading card.

Most groups that I joined were tolerant and encouraging to beginners.  I did bump into a few groups with members who couldn't seem to remember their own humble beginnings but on the whole those participants were relatively rare.  There are groups geared to all skills levels: novice, intermediate and advanced if you are willing to look for them.

I've looking over some of my older ATCs and thinking that I should get back to this art form.  I've been so involved with my books lately that I've forgotten all about it.  It's got me thinking ... 2.5" x 3.5"  would make a nice little notebook.  Hmmmm ...  an ATC book anyone?  Now all I need is an interesting theme.

Here are some of my older ATCs:


Wood veneer with ink



Texture wallpaper with marker drawing. 



Cork background with ink





Heated copper background, ink stamped image and quote.

Paper collage on Divorce theme.

Individual punched oak leaves surround drawn face. Celtic theme.

Iris in mosaic technique.

Lady of the Leaves closed.

Lady of the Leaves open.  Autumn swap.

Paper collage.

Embossed copper and ink.

Collage, texture, embossing, embellsihments.

Stamping on cork background.

Irridescent embossing on sheer fabric, ink drawing.

In the Frame

I mentioned a while back that I was making a picture frame for my mixed media piece in my woodworking class but I never did get around to showing the finished product.

Clarence, my instructor, was very patient with me.  As I mentioned, I started with a 9" wide plank of pine lumber and ended up with my custom made 3" wide 8" x 10" frame.  I wanted to keep the profile very simple and chunky so we stayed with simple angles instead of using some of the curved router bits that Clarence used on his own frame. 

Making mitred corners is a very exacting process. You need to take the thickness of the blade itself into your measurement if you want to get a close fit.  With Clarence's help and a double dose of "measure twice, cut once" I was able to get a pretty good fit and sanding took care of most of my cutting imperfections.  Since I wanted to coat my frame with a gloss black paint, instead of staining it, that was a good thing.  I could have used a sandable wood filler if gaps in my corners had been noticeable.

I put three coats of gloss black acrylic paint on my frame.  I let the paint dry overnight between coats.  I let the frame dry for more than a week before putting the picture into the frame because I found that paint drops that appeared on the underedge of the picture side of the frame appeared to be tacky and I didn't want them to stick to the painting.  I tried to sand them off to the best of my ability but I also didn't want to disturb the paint that would appear wear the frame met the edge of the painting.  I wasn't putting glass or a mat in the frame so the frame would be touching the artwork itself.

Here is the finished result.

It feels good knowing I made the entire piece, frame and all.

Here is a closeup of one of the corners.

With the gloss black paint, it almost looks seamless.

One World One Heart

This is something that I just found in my browsing and it looks like fun so I thought I'd join.  I love looking at other people's blogs.  I find so many interesting ideas and jumping off points for research and other projects. In the middle of one of my many hops I ended up at the blog of A Whimsical Bohemian who was talking about this opportunity for bloggers all over the world to meet.  That sounded so exciting that I thought I'd love to participate even though I'm relatively new to blogging.


There is a list of do's and don't posted but they seem relatively straightforward and simple.  Everyone will be offering a door prize to a lucky visitor, the winner to be announced at the end of the event, February 17, 2011.  Since the event is international the winner may be from anywhere in the world. 

I'll be offering one of my handmade journals. It's a hardcover, full cloth binding.

It's about 5.75" x 4.5"

On the closing date, February 17th, I'll simply be putting names in a hat and making a random draw for my prize winner.  All you have to do is leave a comment with your name and a link to your blog so I can visit you in return and you've entered the draw for the journal.  If you win the draw, I will leave a message for you through your blog asking for your address so that I can send your prize to you.  It's as easy as that.

The full list of participants is found here.

New Acrylic Abstract Texture Painting

Today I began work on another Acrylic Abstract painting.  This one is going to be heavily textured and I used DAP Dry Dex Spackling Compound to provide the texture on my canvas.

The interesting thing about this product is that it goes on pink, and I mean hot pink when it's wet and then dries white.  This way you are in no doubt about when the spackle is ready to paint.  It was less than half price when I picked it up which was the reason I decided to try it.  I used about 200 mL quite generously over a 40 cm x 60 cm canvas.

This gives you an idea of the top and centre portion of the canvas.

The lower third of the canvas had a more stippled texture.

This is a closeup of the top portion of the canvas.

You can see the faint pink in the centre section that indicates that the spackle is still damp.

I am going to let the compound dry thoroughly before giving it a white base coat of acrylic paint.

Internet Research and Organization

I seem to have spent my time in January tidying up my workroom (which sadly needed and still needs sprucing up) and researching topics of interest on the Internet.

The problem with the research aspect is that you can so easily get sidetracked.  You start with a specific topic in mind and all it takes is one interesting blog or website and before you know it, you're off on a tangent -- a very interesting, absorbing tangent, but off topic none the less.  Unfortunately for me, it can take hours before I am away of that fact.  Luckily, in most cases, my searching simply opens new windows and I can backtrack fairly easily and resume my original search.

My notebook, however is now filled with a new list of ideas and websites to be explored at a later date.  Sometimes my original idea or technique will be completely dropped because I've become more intrigued by something I've just discovered.  I can never tell just what I will turn up on one of these forays onto the information highway.

I think the most frustrating thing, though, is to see something interesting and not take note of it right away assuming that you will be able to backtrack to that page only to find that the usually reliable back arrow doesn't take you back to that specific page and the next time you use your search parameters you don't find that blog or website again. You know it's out there somewhere in cyberspace but you don't know how you got to it the first time because it was a hop and skip from a link to a link to a link etc. and your chances of duplicating that chain of events is .... slim .... unlikely .... highly improbable.

But how do you know that something you see today, that you've never even contemplated trying, is going to be something that you might like to do seven months from now?  I don't.  But experience has taught me that if my reaction is, "gee, that's cool", or "wow", someday I might wonder how they did that and want to go back and look again.  In that case, bookmark the site and try and give it a reasonable category name - not just ART.  Then the worst that can happen is spending time hopping through my favourite links and deleted broken ones.

I also have websites recorded in my notebooks.  They are kept in chronological order.  They came about from my work days.  At one point I was trying to squeeze a part time and full time job into one full time slot.  I was a full time teacher and a part time consultant.  The part time being one day a week.  As anyone who has done this kind of thing knows, two jobs do not stay in neat time slots.  When people want the school board consultant they aren't too concerned that the "teacher" might be on her lunch hour.  I had my "consultant notebook" to keep track of calls and I kept them dated so I would know when they came in and when I'd taken action on them so they didn't slip through the cracks.  I was soon in the habit of putting the date on everything that I recorded in the book and that habit stuck with me.

When I'm working at the computer, the first thing I do is get my little notebook (3.5 x5"), find my working page, put in the date and start what I'm doing.  Whether it's paying bills, checking email, ordering supplies or researching if I can't print off a record, I make a note in my book, that includes important phone calls from tradespeople.  If there is a problem, my documentation of what's been said is in the book with the time and date beside it, waiting to be written formally if necessary.  When one notebook is filled it gets put away and another is started.  I keep them for several years.

I know that I could organize all this material on the computer in a database.  I love working with a database yet I don't do it --- strange isn't it?  There is great software out there for logging phone calls and contact management.  I taught students how to design applications for using database software and I have several myself but I still use my notebook.  Why?  

A lot of what I note down has no specific category.  It is random facts, thoughts, queries to be followed up later, book titles, authors names, urls, technique names for research, supplier possibilities.  Most of the notes are starting points only.  The end result will be a website that I'll bookmark.

A second reason for keeping it in the notebook is that rereading the notebook or idea book is a spark to creativity itself.  I find that simply going through it, looking at the ideas and queries that I've written down over time, reawakens interest in some of these ideas.  You can't do that with a database.  You can't ask, "what's in there that I don't remember and have the database pull up an answer."